Giving a TED Talk is on many speakers and aspirational speakers’ bucket lit. It all starts with crafting a TED Talk worthy idea. I discuss how to do this with my guest, Brian Miller.
As a human connection specialist, Brian delivers keynote speeches and workshops for corporations, associations, non-profits, and colleges around the world.
At Conquer the Red Dot® Brian takes experts and leaders through an intensive 1-on-1 coaching program to get them booked at the TED-style conference of their dreams, then to structure, write, memorize, rehearse, and deliver the talk. And finally, to promote the talk once it hits YouTube and leverage it for brand building.
In the Beginning
Brian was a full-time magician for a decade and he enjoyed his craft. One night, while walking into an event his phone rang from an unknown number. When you’re an entrepreneur and a call like that comes through, you answer it because it could be a potential client. The person on the other side of the call said, “I’m organizing a TEDx conference and wonder if you’d be interested in giving a TED Talk”. Brian freaked out because he was obsessed with TED Talks, but it was never on his radar to give a TED Talk. He immediately said “Yes!” and asked if he could call back tomorrow. That conversation changed his life.
Six months later he gave his TEDx talk, “How to Magically Connect with Anyone” explaining what he learned as a magician about making quick, meaningful interactions and connections with others and how you can do that if you’re not a magician and it went viral. Over three and a half million people saw it organically when the tools to “rig the system” for views didn’t exist. Brian became famous in a really small niche. He started to get calls to give keynote speeches even though he had never been a speaker. He said “Yes!” to everything and figured out how to be a speaker.
After years of doing that people started reaching out to him saying “I’m going to give my first TEDx talk, you’ve given one of my favorite TEDx talks, can you teach me how to do that?” So, Brian started coaching people and eventually built a business around it.
How Do You Know if Your Idea is “TED worthy”?
“Is my idea TED worthy?” is the right question to ask yourself and others. What most people ask is “How do I get more people to know about my business?” and a common answer is “Maybe I’ll do a TED Talk and get that red logo on my website.” Wrong question and answer.
Where you want to start is with do you actually know what an idea is? In Brian’s experience, most people don’t know what an idea is. What most people think is an idea is actually a topic. A topic is something like “The science of balance”. You know that’s not an idea because if I ask you “What’s your idea?”, “The science of balance” isn’t the right answer. It’s a statement.
Some people go a step further and what they actually have is an issue. An issue is not an idea. An issue is a problem in need of a solution. “The leading cause of death in people over 65 is falling” would be an issue related to the science of balance.
Finally, a story is not an idea. This one upsets people. They think a story of rags to riches, of tragedy to triumph and so on are ideas. While they may tug at your heartstrings, they’re not ideas.
What you want to do is take your topic or your issue or your story, and what you want to do is look for the idea inside them. An idea proposes a solution that moves people to action. So, in the case of this balance expert, an idea sounds like this: “If you don’t want the last years of your life to be the worst years of your life you should focus on balance now.” That proposes a solution and moves people to action.
In this episode we also discuss:
- How to translate your idea into a TED Talk.
- Why you need to know what a “filter statement” is and how to use it.
- How to create a “North Star” so you know what you’re aiming for and how to get there.
- The one thing, above all else, that is a sign you have a TED Talk worthy idea.
…and more golden nuggets of advice!
You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”
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About My Guest
Brian Miller is the founder of Conquer the Red Dot®, an elite program that teaches experts and leaders how to book, write, deliver, and leverage the talk of their dreams at TED-style conferences. A former professional magician turned international keynote speaker on human connection, with over 3.6 million views on his own TEDx talk ‘How to Magically Connect with Anyone,’ Brian brings a unique blend of entertainment and insights to the art of public speaking.
Where most speaker coaching firms focus on presentation skills, Brian’s methodology focuses on message clarity – how to put the right ideas in the right order to move the audience to action.
Conquer the Red Dot® has supported clients in 19 industries across 6 countries. Their graduates have an average view count of 433,000 with 4 over 1,000,000 views. Two of their students were in the Top 50 in the World for all of 2023, four were in the Top 10 in the World the month their talk was released in 2024, and 4 of their clients have been selected as TED Editor’s Picks.
Website: https://conquerthereddot.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianmillerspeaks/
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